c3 71 vette question

[shane barnes]

While I was cleaning underneath the body of my 71 vette I found a date scratched into the fiberglass along with initials that I could not make out. The date preceeds my build date of February 1971. I found the date in the area close to the gas door opening on underside of body. I was wondering if anyone else had found a date and initials in that area.

[Jack H.]

Re: c3 71 vette question

Haven't seen such, but it IS common to find original manufacturing date coded labels from Rockwell Automotive laid into the individual fiberglass panels. My '71 has two that are quite visible; one on the inside of the RH outer fender just behind the wheel well (near side 'gill' louver) and another on the bottom of the spare tire tub. The date sequence on these pre-printed Rockwell labels is of the form XX-Y where XX is the week of the year and Y is the year.

[shane barnes]

Re: c3 71 vette question

Jack,

I found a label in the front drivers side fender wheel well. I believe that the label had A.O.Smith on it with a date. I located this label when cleaning undercoating. it is actually applied to the underside of the hood surround. I will look tonight to see if it is A.O.Smith. Ever heard of A.O.Smith labels on 71 bodies? I think I read that A.O.Smith made bodies for vettes at some point. Thanks for the info!

[Bob D.]

Re: c3 71 vette question

Yep, I found a date and initials on my '71 in the same area. The date written on the body was 11/13/70 which preceeds my trim tag date by 14 days. The trim tag is D27, or November 27, 1970.

[Craig S.]

Re: c3 71 vette question

Shane - A.O. Smith stopped manufacturing bodies for vettes in 1967...Craig

[John H.]

Re: c3 71 vette question

And they continued to make Corvette body panels through 1982; I used to go out to Ionia every few months and make them re-install the clamps and locators they had removed from the fixtures we supplied them to assemble C3 doors - speeded up the operation, but made lousy doors